


without reservation

by tvfanatic97



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, F/M, Kid Fic, Undercover as Married, Unsafe Tooth Extraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:49:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28204134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tvfanatic97/pseuds/tvfanatic97
Summary: He watches over her carefully, concern etched into every crevice of his beautiful face, as she swallows down a couple of pills then empties the entire glass of water. “Do you think you’ll need something stronger? I could steal some morphine for you from a local pharmacy.”He’s so earnest, so completely serious, that MJ laughs in response but has to stop because it causes her pain. “Don’t make me laugh,” she whines through a wince.Peter just shrugs in response, like he can’t help it.-A 'The Americans' (s3ep03) AU.
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Comments: 17
Kudos: 83





	without reservation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [perfectlystill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectlystill/gifts).



> Emma!!!! I'm a bit early but it's technically the 21st already in my time zone (yes I waited and watched the clock till midnight on the dot) so: happy birthday and happy holidays!! But mostly happy birthday bc today is all about you, so no lumping your birthday in with the holiday season from me!!! I think our friendship may be destined to be one of us saying they'd like to read an au of something then the other writing a vignette set in that universe as opposed to like...an actual au over and over again, but that's okay...what says friendship better than writing a hyper-specific au for your friend?? Sexy tooth extraction nation!!
> 
> Love you and appreciate you more than you know. I hope you enjoy this and have the bestest day, you deserve it all <3

MJ smiles politely and nods intermittently at the right intervals as they slowly make their way through the suburban McMansion, barely listening to the real estate agent drone on about inconsequential details on the open house.

What she actually pays attention to, are the details that matter: the Frontpoint home security system installed in the house, the CCTV camera installed by the front entrance, the wall in the home office that’s a foot short of the dimensions listed on the blueprints of the house, clearly concealing something. These are the details she’s been trained to notice, her field experience making it so she makes a note of these things automatically, instinctively, whenever she enters any building or space.

She’s so distracted by surveying the target’s house that she misses when the relator— Martha? Mary? Marie? — asks her a question directly. Peter is the one who draws her attention to the relator, “Forgive my Mary Jane, sometimes she just gets so lost in her own head.”

There’s a patronising, biting, undercurrent to his words that she’s unaccustomed to from Peter, even in the early days of their S.H.I.E.L.D mandated marriage when they were two young, bright stars in the organisation paired together to be married as part of a new undercover operation when they barely knew each other.

MJ frowns then clenches her jaw in frustration then has to immediately relax when the broken molar at the back of her mouth protests the action. He’s been taking the same clipped tone with her all morning, clearly feeling a sense of betrayal that she’d had a conversation with Fury about Lia’s future within the organisation. The conversation was an informal one hinting at what may come in the future, entirely based on hypotheticals, yet she and Peter had long ago agreed to be a team in all aspects of this— the field work, the marriage, the parenting.

Realising she still hasn’t responded or contributed to the conversation in anyway, she shakes her head and giggles, feigning a slightly flustered air in keeping with the cover Peter has apparently created for her. “You know me, Benny. I heard marble top counters and I started day dreaming about all the meals I can cook up in here.”

Peter bites back a grin at the irony of her words; they both know she’s useless in the kitchen, having nearly burnt down their own kitchen on the few occasions she’d attempted to cook, but it plays into the role of her cover Mary Jane Watson-Reilly—a housewife whose husband Ben Reilly has just got a promotion at work who is looking to get a new house that’s in keeping with her husband’s pay bump.

“Well, I’m glad to hear you say you can picture yourself in this house,” the realtor cuts through the moment, causing Peter and MJ to tear their gazes away from each other. “Let me show you the adjoining pantry you could also turn into a wine cellar. Mommy’s den,” she adds with a wink.

MJ allows herself to be lead to the other end of the kitchen, but not without looking over the other woman’s shoulder back towards Peter who nods imperceptibly at her, taking his cue to go back to the office and find out what secrets are concealed within it. After all these years, they’re able to have whole conversations without having to exchange any words, easily falling into their roles and functioning so in tandem it’s like one is an extension of the other, even when things are tense between them as they are now.

“Hey, uh, I’m just gonna have another look at the attic. You just pull the string, yeah?” Peter asks the realtor, already turning to head back upstairs.

“Yes! Though you might have to pull it real hard, it’s a bit stiff,” she explains. “I’m sure you’ll manage just fine,” she adds on, throwing Peter a sly wink and pointedly staring over Peter’s arms, at the way his shirt fits him nicely. MJ goes to clench her jaw before she remembers her tooth, so instead she clears her throat which works to turn the relator’s attention back to her. The other woman smiles sheepishly, waves Peter goodbye with one hand whilst the other rests on MJ’s shoulder to guide her towards this pantry-slash-potential-wine-cellar space.

MJ allows the relator to go ahead of her into the cramped space of the pantry whilst she hangs back by the entrance, partly listening to the woman go on about the potential uses of the space, but mostly just keeping an eye out for Peter. They have well over a decade of experience behind them at this point and have done covert missions like this multiple times, the dance a familiar one they could do in their sleep. And she trusts and believes in Peter, implicitly, but that doesn’t lessen the weight at the pit of her stomach and the anxiety broiling within her as she waits for him.

It’s made worse when the owner of the house suddenly appears; _Daniel Whitehall_ , a man who is part of the high council of Hydra if the intelligence given to her and Peter by Fury is to be believed.

The relator also notices his presence. “Oh Mr Whitehall, I didn’t know you’d be here,” she says as she shuffles quickly out of the pantry, straightening her pencil skirt and hair, the picture of professionalism.

“Hey Martha.” _Martha_ , that’s her name. “I just forgot something in my office upstairs. I’ll be out of your hair in two seconds.”

He’s bounding upstairs before Martha has the chance to respond and the weight at the pit of MJ’s stomach grows and grows, her frayed nerves causing her heart to start racing. She doesn’t think she takes even a single breath the entire time Whitehall is upstairs—seconds, minutes, hours, she doesn’t know how long she waits there.

MJ gets to work quickly working through possible plans of escape and how she can get both her and Peter out should things go south. They brought a knife and Peter’s web shooters with them just in case but both are on her, the small knife concealed on a holster beneath her dress and Peter’s web shooters in her handbag. She calculates that she’d have just enough time to run upstairs and get Peter before whatever reinforcements Whitehall could call arrive at the house.

She finally lets out a silent gasp, relieved, when Whitehall comes down the stairs and says his goodbyes then leaves, closely followed by her husband who comes to stand right beside her. MJ slips her hand into his and he gives her a quick, gentle squeeze in reassurance.

After assuring Martha they’ll contact her after having a think about the house, the two quickly make their way out of the house and get into the car to follow Whitehall who has a two-minute head start on them.

They manage to catch up to him, keeping a few cars between theirs (an all-American family van for the Reillys and their kids, entirely unassuming) and Whitehall’s car as they follow him around the suburbs. MJ fiddles with the car radio until she hits the right frequency and suddenly they’re listening to Whitehall.

The man makes a few calls over the duration of the time they follow him: one to Martha to double check when she’ll finish showings for the day, one to a woman they presume is his assistant about moving a meeting then a final one to his babysitter, an Elisa. The final call has some suggestive undertones to it that could potentially be used against him in the future, but other than that there’s nothing of particular interest.

They continue to drive around, going wherever Whitehall goes, still listening in on him.

“How’s your tooth?” Peter asks after a prolonged stretch of silence.

MJ subconsciously moves her tongue over the tooth in question, the gentle nudge of her tongue causing a pain to shoot through her jaw. “Fine,” she grits out.

Out of the corner of her eye she sees Peter turn to look at her, the concern on his face apparent but MJ keeps her focus on the road ahead. Since she had her face slammed into the hood of a car by some Hydra sleeper agents two days ago, the tooth has gotten increasingly painful, the gum surrounding it getting more and more inflamed. She’s been getting through each day by popping Aspirins and sticking to a soft diet of soup, mashed potatoes and ice cream. Peter has noticed all of this.

“Michelle—” he starts to say, about to call her out on her blatant lie and suggest they do something about the tooth, maybe go to a dentist. But MJ can’t risk it; there’s no way Hydra won’t be watching every dental practice in and around Queens, just waiting for a woman who matches her description to walk in, even if she’s to wear any one of her different wigs.

“There’s a silver Lexus that’s gone past us twice now,” MJ says, effectively ending the conversation about her worsening tooth.

“Are you sure?” Peter asks.

MJ thinks back to the past two hours they’ve been driving around in the car cataloguing anything amiss they came across. “Yes, it’s the same plate number.”

“Shit,” Peter breathes out. “Shit,” he repeats, this time louder.

She makes the next left turn, effectively abandoning Whitehall whom they’ve been following around for the better part of four hours now and slows the car down minutely.

Peter fishes his cell phone out of his pocket and sends off a distress signal, letting the organisation know they need an out. They carry on driving around aimlessly, the silver Lexus still a few cars behind them the entire time, as they wait for a signal.

Once its dark out, MJ turns into a quiet side road and slows to an almost stop, allowing Peter to jump out of the car before she speeds back up and carries on. He’ll go ahead home without her, check in on Lia and Ben, and turn on all the lights to show that they’re home so their Hydra agent neighbour won’t get curious about their absence and check in on their kids.

MJ carries on driving around the city, waiting. Her heart is racing, hammering against her rib cage, and she has to work to ensure she takes proper, deep breaths in and then out whilst her hands grip the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles turning white. Her neck is stiff from keeping it in the same, upright position over the last however many hours it’s been of her driving around the city. Letting Peter head home to be with the kids was a good plan they’d both agreed to, yet she wishes more than anything that he were here with her.

She’s coming to her wit’s end, starting to think about how she might get out of this and away from the Hydra agents following her by herself if S.H.I.E.L.D don’t come through when she _finally_ gets the signal.

MJ watches in her rear view mirror as a black SUV appears out of nowhere, colliding into the side of the silver Lexus and driving it off the road. The resulting car pile-up and commotion and panic gives MJ a chance to park the car, quickly grab her things and wipe the car down before she abandons it and runs off through the nearby dark alleyway.

* * *

MJ sighs with relief when she takes her heeled boots off and places her feet on the flat ground, allowing them to breathe. Her racing heart slows and she can breathe easy for the first time since this morning now that she’s back at home, surrounded by their things and facing a hand-made sign by the coat hooks that reads “ _Welcome to the Parkers_ ”.

The sign’s messy in the way children’s art tends to be, and missing the necessary apostrophe but Lia had been so proud when she brought it home from Elementary School, and Peter even prouder when he hung it up right by the entrance so it was one of the first things people see when they come into their home.

Forever attuned to her presence and always listening out for her, Peter calls out to her soon after she enters the house. “MJ?”

He appears in front of her in the next second. His hair is standing in all directions from him incessantly running his hands through it, a nervous habit of his, and his eyes are wet and blood-shot. Something in MJ’s chest constricts at the sight of him, at the worry etched on his face.

Peter’s eyes frantically scan over her, searching for injuries or signs of anything amiss. When he’s satisfied she’s not injured, at least not visibly, he pulls her into his arms and wraps her up in an almost-crushing hug.

MJ allows herself to melt into his embrace, inhaling the scent of him, the scent of _home,_ deeply. This isn’t the first nor will it be the last close call like this they’ve had—they lead dangerous lives as undercover S.H.I.E.L.D agents in the field—but that fear and panic will never go away, not when there’s so much to lose.

He pulls away from the hug but stays close to her, moving his arms that were wrapped around her waist up to allow him to gently rest on her cheeks, his large hands framing her face. He looks deep into her eyes, his gaze intense and unwavering and MJ doesn’t shy away.

After a moment passes, he presses his lips against hers. It’s a barely-there peck to start with, but it melts and transforms into something else, quickly becoming deeper and more desperate.

But MJ has to gently push at his shoulders to get him to pull away when her tooth is jostled, causing pain to shoot through her entire jaw and MJ can’t hide her wince from Peter.

Peter runs his finger gently over her cheek just over the tooth that’s infected, likely turning gangrenous at this point, willing her pain away through the gentleness of his touch alone. He rubs his finger back and forth over the soft skin one, two times whilst looking into her eyes, asking her a question without having to say the words.

MJ brings her hand up to rest lightly over his then nods her head before allowing him to lead her to their small one-car garage. After closing and locking the door to ensure Lia and Ben don’t happen to wander in, he has her sit on a stool whilst he digs through the toolbox on the work bench he uses to tinker with his suit or web formula late at night when he can’t sleep, too consumed with thoughts about the family he left behind when he joined the fight against Hydra, about May and Ned.

She watches him grab a pair of pliers which he attempts to sterilise with a bottle of the vodka she keeps here for the nights when _she_ can’t sleep.

After he’s done he passes the bottle to her, allowing her to swallow some down in lieu of any anesthesia and MJ winces at the burn of alcohol as it travels down her throat, but gulps down a bit more before she hands the bottle back to Peter.

Peter moves one of his hands to tangle in the hair at the back of her head, cradling her, whilst the other one moves to tilt her head back so she is looking up at him.

MJ’s eyes track up from the pair of old pliers in his hand, up, up, and up until she lands on his face—his pursed lips, his brow which is furrowed in concentration, before she settles on his eyes which are open and soft, staring down at her.

She meets his gaze, then slowly opens her mouth wide for him. MJ’s eyes immediately start to water when he starts to dig around but she tries to let the familiar taste of him on her tongue, the all-encompassing smell of him which surrounds her and his unwavering gaze comfort her. She brings both her arms up and wraps them around his forearm, her finger resting over the gentle pulsation just over the bony prominence of his wrist and she allows that to comfort her, too.

MJ squeezes his arm when he starts to pull the tooth. She maintains eye contact with him for as long as she can manage until she can no longer bare it and has to squeeze her eyes shut at the pain that shoots through her as the tooth is dislodged from its root.

She wants to cry, to scream, to roughly push him away, but she knows he needs to do this. She allows his almost imposing presence as he stands over her with one hand in her hair and the other in her mouth to calm her, to ground her.

Peter finally finishes, and pulls his hand away. MJ almost sighs out in relief except Peter frowns as he looks down at the tooth on the pliers, then, “I didn’t get it all. I’m sorry, Em.”

MJ has to take a deep breath in and then out, doing her best to calm herself and prepare to go again before she nods imperceptibly, signalling to him to try again. Just before Peter can assume the same position as before MJ stops him to wrap his hand in hers, then she gives him a gentle squeeze. She tries to communicate so much through her hold—that she knows he can do this and she trusts him with this, with _everything._

Peter squeezes her hand back once then they disentangle and he gets into position to try again, being much more successful this time.

When he’s done he steps out, leaving MJ alone in the quiet of the garage. She rests her elbows on her knees and presses the palms of her hands into her eyes, futilely trying to distract herself from the blossoming ache where her tooth once was.

She startles before immediately relaxing when Peter walks back into the garage, holding a glass of water in one hand and a bottle of Aspirin in another, both of which she gratefully takes.

He watches over her carefully, concern etched into every crevice of his beautiful face, as she swallows down a couple of pills then empties the entire glass of water. “Do you think you’ll need something stronger? I could steal some morphine for you from a local pharmacy.”

He’s so earnest, so completely serious, that MJ laughs in response but has to stop because it causes her pain. “Don’t make me laugh,” she whines through a wince.

Peter just shrugs in response, like he can’t help it. He helps her off the stool, pulling her into his waiting arms to hug her tightly against him. He pulls away and regards her face for an unknowable stretch of time, he then presses his warm lips against hers in a gentle kiss that causes her to let go of all the tension she’s been carrying in her jaw, her neck and her lower back, not just from the impromptu tooth extraction but from the general stress of the day.

The weight of the day, the panic of it, all melts away as Peter rubs his fingers soothingly over her cheek and she swears the remnants of her pain seem to fade away at the action, though that could be the pain killers kicking in.

After a beat he finally speaks, his voice nothing more than a breathy whisper, “Let’s go to bed, Em.”

**Author's Note:**

> To everyone else that read this who is completely unfamiliar with 'The Americans' firstly you should consider watching the show, but also my apologies for throwing you into the universe in the middle of it w no set up or anything, but I tried to pepper in hints of the wider universe and Peter and MJ's circumstances (they're two S.H.I.E.L.D agents who were put together to be an undercover married couple and had kids (their own) as part of that cover). Hope you still enjoyed it somehow even if you may have no idea what's going on haha. As always, comments and kudos are much appreciated!
> 
> Find me [tumblr](https://tvfanatic97-2.tumblr.com/) and on [twitter](https://twitter.com/dayaspsychic), if you want x


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